The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1887-09-29
ELECTRIC FINGERS.
The Wonderful Natural Powers OF a
Young Belgian.

The Wonderful Natural Powers OF a
Young Belgian.
Anton Saverne, a Belgian cabinet
maker, employed at a Kensington ship
yard. and living all alone in a little
frame house at 962 Schleswig street,
has the wonderful power of producing
electric spsrlzes by rubbing his fingers.
Saverne is II little swarthy fellow, about
forty years old, with a bushy head OF
black hair, keen blue eyes-very rare
among his countrymen-and very
small hands. His motions prove that
he is excess :vcly nervous. and his
senses of hearing. sight and smell, as
he assured a reporter of The Daily
News recently, are unusually acute.
Belgium, hear Brussels. and he is the
youngest Of a family of eleven children.
Il know not how I do it," he said
last evening, as the reporter saw sparks
shoot from Saverne's fingers. The
cabinet maker rubbed his finger, tips
rapidly up and down upon his panta-
looms. Then, holding his hands out,
with the fingers widely extended, jets of
tiny yellow flames or long sparks shot
out. They seemed propelled by some
unseen force ten or twelve inches into
the air when they vanished. The right
hand appeared to be more charged with
electricity, if the sparks are electric,
than the left. The lamp in Saverne's
front room-there are only two in the
house-was put out, so that the sparks
might be seen in all their brilliancy. 1t
was a wonderful sight. Again and
again did the b~ushy-headed Belgian rub
his fingers and hold them out while
tiny showers of bright sparks darted
out as if from toy fireworks.
II was not always So" said Saverne.
lighting the lamp and his black pipe,
filled with villainous tobacco, at tho
same time. ''When I had been sick,
ten years ago, it was said I would die.
I lay so weak n night in my fathers
house, when there came up a storm.
Such thunder and lightning I never
knew before. And my body had such
queer sensations. While I lay, cover
ed up with bed clothes, my mother sat
holding her face in her hands by my
side, and I seemed to feel a thousand
needles pricking my limbs and chest
and the souls of my feet. 1t was not
so painful, for queer thrills came with
every prick, and when the thunder
rolled away aud the rain stopped, I rose
up, leaned back and put out my hand
to take that of my mothers. My eyes
we're closed, but I heard her cry,
:Antonr
".What p I gasped weakly.
"'Your hand.
81 looked at it. The one nearest to
her. 1t was afame. God preserve us.
I was terrified. My cry brought my
father and sisters to the room. They
looked at me in horror. I took my
other hand from the clothes to rub my
right. Sparks shot from the fingers Of
the left. Soon they died away, but l
have but to rub my hands as you have
seen and the lights come"
Saverne told of the hardships
brought upon him by his singular
faSulty. The ~neighboring peasants in
Belgium avoided him, and told awful
stories of his being in league with the
devil. Men would not hire him to
pillow, OF in harvest time. His own
family chung to him. but the farm was
small and he came to this country five
years ago. Here he learned the cabi-
net making trade, and got employment
at finishing ship interiors. But, when
his companions saw his faculty or in
trinity, they treated him coldly. His
ignorant neighbors in Rchleswig street
regarded him as possessed of an evil
spirit. S%averne's electric fingers are
the curse of his existence. -Philodel-
phiG NeUs.